


eat your cake and have it too

by Belgium



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, hot cheetos, venmo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-04 00:48:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17294501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belgium/pseuds/Belgium
Summary: They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Mark finds out just how true that platitude is.





	eat your cake and have it too

**Author's Note:**

  * For [umiwomitai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/umiwomitai/gifts).



> i hope you enjoy this silly little fic! hope you had a wonderful holiday and that 2019 brings you good things ♡
> 
> venmo is an app that lets you send and request money on your phone, essentially like paypal (venmo is owned by paypal).

Donghyuck Lee paid Mark Lee  
Sept 14  
ATTENTION EVERYONE mark lee is a passive aggressive swindling asshole!!!!!  
♡ 6  ✎ 5

> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 14  
>  Can u take this down, my mom is friends with me on Venmo haha
> 
> Donghyuck Lee  
>  Sept 14  
>  “take this down”??? so u dont want ur money?????
> 
> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 14  
>  No wait that’s not what I said
> 
> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 14  
>  Can u at least make this transaction private
> 
> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 14  
>  Hyuck!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark generally considered himself to be a good-ish person. He was nowhere as diabolical as Donghyuck, who was prone to lovingly pick on the people he cherished, completely unprovoked, but was also not a shining paragon of morality and virtue like Jungwoo, whose face was so outwardly wholesome that once Mark had mistaken a picture of him crying with the hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head as a photorealistic painting of the Virgin Mary.

He was somewhere in the middle ground, really, though ever since the semester started and they had some bullshit intro psychology lecture together, Donghyuck frequently argued that he was just on this side of being a goody two shoes.

“I feel like girls don’t really go for goody two shoeses,” Mark said.

“I feel like you don’t really go for girls,” Donghyuck reminded him pointedly and returned to plunder Mark’s family sized bag of veggie chips.

The chips _were_ technically Mark’s but Donghyuck staked ownership over them, even though Mark really brought them for everyone who sat at their unassigned assigned seats. Their table had initially comprised of Mark and Donghyuck, along with Donghyuck’s amusingly acerbic roommate Renjun. 

“You guys are both equally as boring, so you’ll probably get along really well,” was how Donghyuck introduced them to one another.

“Get fucked,” Renjun had said, but his tone held no vitriol, as if this was something he said to Donghyuck on a regular basis, and that’s when Mark knew he had to shake his hand in solidarity. Renjun, though, had no concept of loyalty, and for the next few lectures he flip-flopped sides, either teaming up with Mark and dragging Donghyuck or the other way around, depending on whoever he sensed was at their weakest. Or maybe it depended on what snacks Mark brought to class. 

Anyway, it wasn’t until two weeks into lecture after the open add/drop period when their table was definitively set in stone, though Mark didn’t really have a say in their final lineup. Picture this: Mark, purely out of the goodness of his heart, had just been about go to class before he realized that he would be showing up empty-handed. He had dashed to one of the campus cafés to snatch the first bagged snack he saw (which happened to be a bag of Hot Cheetos) before booking it to psych, where he had managed to slide into his seat seconds before their prof showed up to take attendance, face flushed and a forehead full of sweat.

“Yo, guys, I got the goods,” Mark huffed to Donghyuck and Renjun’s twin faces of amusement.

“What kind of goods are we talking about?” asked a deep voice that Mark didn’t recognize.

Mark swiveled his head to the stranger whom he hadn’t even noticed next to Renjun, taking the normally vacant seat. Everything about the guy was big, especially compared to Renjun—he was broad and tall, bright eyes and a velvet mouth, shooting an interested grin straight at Mark, who had picked this time to malfunction.

“Uh,” he said intelligently. “Good—good goods.”

Donghyuck stared dumbly at him, but Mark was too busy staring dumbly at the stranger to even notice.

“Show me your goodies, then,” said the stranger.

As if in a trance, Mark slowly opened the bag of Hot Cheetos and offered them to the stranger. He popped a Cheeto in his mouth. And if Mark couldn’t tear his eyes away from the way the stranger’s Adam’s apple bobbed sensually down and up again when he swallowed or the way he brought his fingers up to his lips and licked them clean—well, he would have Donghyuck and Renjun to torment him about it for the rest of eternity, probably.

“Oh my God?” said Donghyuck, still staring at Mark. “Are you okay? Blink once if you’re not okay. Keep staring if you need help.”

“This is Yukhei, by the way,” Renjun said after failing to conceal a guffaw of laughter. “We’re family friends.”

“Cool, cool, cool, cool,” said Mark, feeling somewhat faint.

“Thanks,” said Yukhei and grinned wolfishly. “I was really hungry.”

 

*

 

Renjun Huang paid Mark Lee  
Sept 21  
Hey, thanks for the drugs! :-)  
♡ 11  ✎ 7

> Donghyuck Lee  
>  Sept 21  
>  where is my cut???????
> 
> John Seo  
>  Sept 21  
>  omg wow they grow up so fast
> 
> Jeffrey Jung  
>  Sept 21  
>  haha bet
> 
> Taeyong Lee  
>  Sept 21  
>  Mark, is everything OK?
> 
> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 21  
>  I TOLD U GUYS MY MOM IS FRIENDS WITH ME ON VENMO
> 
> Jaemin Na  
>  Sept 22  
>  Omg wait injun is this what u meant by mark is a tyrant bc lol
> 
> Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul  
>  Sept 22  
>  Lol… u guys rly out here wildin!

Donghyuck Lee paid Mark Lee  
Sept 22  
i am begging u to end my mouth suffering  
♡ 5  ✎ 2

> Jeno Lee  
>  Sept 22  
>  Can you please word this differently?
> 
> Donghyuck Lee  
>  Sept 22  
>  no

Having grown up together, Mark knew that Donghyuck liked snacks that were so salty they made him squint and pucker his entire face and gave him what he called “desert mouth,” although this was also what he indiscriminately called his hangover dry mouth. He would inevitably bloat, always proclaiming something about God’s tears. Mark had yet to figure out if he meant that God teared up at how bloated Donghyuck was in the morning or if it was some kind of curse. He didn’t care to know. 

Renjun, on the other hand, neither had the proclivity to snack nor seem to have any kind of snack preferences, so Mark had always defaulted to Donghyuck. He would bring in the most sodium-filled snack he could sneak out of the caf or the cheapest generic brand chips he could get at CVS, whichever was more feasible. 

Everything changed when Yukhei switched into their psych class. At the end of Yukhei’s first day, Mark had learned several things about him: they were both sophomores, anything spicy—Hot Cheetos or otherwise—were his favorites, and that he was always hungry.

“I’m carbo loading,” Yukhei had once explained with his mouth full, to Renjun’s dismay and horror.

“I’m not really sure if binge eating Cheetos is considered carbo loading but go off, dude,” Mark had said. 

Only because he was a good friend and enjoyed when his friends ate well and was probably a serial people pleaser, he made a mental note to only bring in Hot Cheetos from now on. This, he knew, would not please Donghyuck, who theoretically could eat spicy things but preferred not to have his mouth catch on fire every time he tried to get an education on brain functions at ten in the morning, but Donghyuck could, quite frankly, suck it.

“I don’t like spicy stuff and you know this,” Donghyuck whispered to him.

“Then don’t eat it,” Mark whispered back, glancing at Yukhei’s sleepy, perfect side profile.

“But I’m hungry.”

“Buy your own snacks!”

“Are you even hearing yourself?” At this point, both Yukhei and Renjun had stopped paying attention to the lecture, so Donghyuck asked Yukhei, “Have you ever seen Mary Poppins? Mark is basically her. He has a never-ending magic carpet bag full of snacks.”

“That—” _is not true_ , Mark had just been about to say before Yukhei’s amused, fond gaze stopped him. He flushed alizarin crimson, which was a color he was only aware of because Renjun had made them all stay in and watch Bob Ross while high multiple times this semester, which always escalated into the kind of night where they stayed up until 4am watching weird YouTube videos. “That’s right,” he said instead, mostly to Yukhei, ignoring Donghyuck and Renjun’s teasing laughter. “I’m like, a snack fairy.”

Even Renjun’s loud, unattractive snort couldn’t dim the way Mark lit up at Yukhei’s laugh.

“Snack fairy?” Yukhei repeated. “Is that right? What kind of snacks do you have?”

“I dunno,” said Mark. “What’s your favorite?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Donghyuck and Renjun had begun to whisper fervently to each other. Mark really hoped they were discussing the thalamus but that hope was mostly a Hail Mary. He was just happy that no one could hear how deafeningly loud his heart was beating.

Yukhei hummed thoughtfully. “I used to eat a lot of sriracha sticks when we visited Thailand. You like sriracha sticks, Mark?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mark’s mouth said. “I freaking love sriracha sticks.”

“Cool, cool, cool, cool,” Yukhei said, a perfect imitation of their first meeting, and winked.

  
*

 

Donghyuck Lee paid Mark Lee  
Sept 24  
ATTENTION EVERYONE MARK LEE CANT EVEN AFFORD A BUS TICKET  
♡ 5  ✎ 2

> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 24  
>  Im unfriending u
> 
> Donghyuck Lee  
>  Sept 24  
>  ur unfriending me on VENMO????? lmfao

After a quick Google search of WHAT ARE SRIRACHA STICKS and WHERE CAN I BUY SRIRACHA STICKS and HOW MUCH DO SRIRACHA STICKS COST and a bus to the nearest Asian speciality supermarket, Mark was equipped on Monday to come in and casually brandish his bounty, and was also perhaps ready to shove just _how_ casual he was about snacking into Donghyuck and Renjun’s ungrateful faces.

He had just been wishing for Donghyuck to choke on a sriracha stick and require resuscitation when he slid into his unassigned assigned seat next to Yukhei’s. Yukhei grinned lazily at him, the corners of his mouth curving slow and wide, and Mark wasn’t sure if he could stave off combusting until their freshmen buffers came.

As if reading his mind, Yukhei greeted him and added, “By the way, Renjun isn’t coming to class today.”

“Oh?”

“He’s sick,” Yukhei said but rolled his eyes and faked a cough à la Mean Girls. “He looked completely fine to me Saturday night. Probably didn’t do his homework or something.”

“That’s weird,” Mark said. “Renjun always does his homework.” He glanced around. “Where’s Hyuck?”

As if on cue, Yukhei’s phone pinged with a text notification. He looked at the text, frowned, and relayed to Mark, “It seems like Donghyuck is also sick.”

If Mark knew anything about Donghyuck and Renjun (devil children, he referred to them in his head), he knew that nothing was ever a coincidence with those two. He was just about to say so, but something about the way Yukhei twisted his entire body to look directly at him, sitting so closely together that their arms brushed against each other made him not want to say anything at all.

Instead, Mark fished out the packet of sriracha sticks and shyly handed them to Yukhei. “Oh, uh, I heard you like these.”

Yukhei touched his free hand gratefully to his heart. “Wow, thanks Mark! Didn’t you say you liked them too? Here.” Before Mark could fumble through a lie about just how much he enjoyed sriracha sticks, Yukhei ripped open the bag quite carelessly and gave a stick to Mark before getting one for himself. 

They clinked their sticks together in cheers. And then, with a twinkle in his eye, Yukhei opened his mouth, brought it up to his full lips, and then slowly—perhaps even sensually—licked the very tip of the cracker. The torture did not stop there, but Mark wouldn’t know what to say even if he wasn’t rendered speechless. Yukhei dragged his glistening pink tongue flat up the cracker before sucking the tip into his mouth and finally, _finally_ taking a bite.

Mark swallowed but found that his throat was ash dry. “I, uh. I hope Hyuck and Renjun, um… I hope they get better soon,” he said to Yukhei’s mouth.

“Me too. It would suck if they were really sick. My house is throwing a party on Friday.” Yukhei bit off another piece of the stick almost shyly. He looked up at Mark through his lashes. “And I really wanted you guys to be there. But, um, if those two don’t go, do you still wanna come?” he asked hopefully.

If Donghyuck were here, Mark would have probably taken the time to compose himself and give Yukhei a slightly cooler answer than his panicked, “Um, hell yeah I do!”

Yukhei grinned. “Sweet. Gimme your number so I can text you the details?”

“Deal.” Mark handed over his phone and watched Yukhei carefully typed his contact information in his address book just as their prof entered the room and began lecture. Yukhei slid his phone back to him and their hands touched only briefly, but Mark couldn’t stop feeling the ghost of that moment of heat for the rest of class.

 

*

 

Donghyuck Lee charged Mark Lee  
Sept 25  
emotional compensation  
♡ 9  ✎ 2

> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 25  
>  What does this mean
> 
> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 25  
>  Hyuck Im shaking and crying what does this mean

Renjun Huang charged Mark Lee  
Sept 25  
Tuition  
♡ 3  ✎ 4

> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 25  
>  Its not my fault u decided to skip class!!!
> 
> Renjun Huang  
>  Sept 25  
>  1) I was SICK 2) I even gave you a discount for letting me copy your notes
> 
> Mark Lee  
>  Sept 25  
>  1) Ur a liar 2) Im reporting u to the Venmo police
> 
> Renjun Huang  
>  Sept 26  
>  Lol ok go ahead

In addition to being a good-ish person, Mark also considered himself to be somewhat of a social chameleon. He had once heard Doyoung accuse Jaehyun of being one, although Mark felt like there were worse things to be than a societal suck-up, and so he had refurbished it for himself.

It was true, after all—there was no one he didn’t or couldn’t get along with. He had walked to Yukhei’s party with Donghyuck, and when Donghyuck eventually peeled off to mingle with his own devil friends (Jeno and Jaemin; Renjun had come over earlier to hang out), Mark began the house party ritual of going around in a circle and bumped into Johnny and Jaehyun. Johnny, who received a stipend from teaching and was therefore probably Mark’s richest student friend, bought him a cup of jungle juice. Mark had taken a sip, spat it back out immediately, and hid the cup behind a sofa when Johnny wasn’t looking.

Like a buoy propelled by the sea of bodies, Mark bid Johnny and Jaehyun a temporary goodbye before he was swept to Doyoung, who mothered him, and then onto Taeyong, who smothered him, before reuniting with Donghyuck and his friends again, and Renjun managed to convince them all to do shots of Fireball. Mark did not _cry_ , thank you very much, _Donghyuck_ , but his eyes involuntarily watered from that cinnamon nightmare. 

Before he could tell Donghyuck where exactly he could go shove his empty shot glass, Mark saw Jungwoo across the room and Jungwoo blew him a kiss, which stunned him long enough that his whole world shifted, and he somehow ended up as the moderator in Taeil and Yuta’s weird lover’s spat about Sicheng, who seemed completely disinterested and was instead talking animatedly to Kun.

The rest was a blur. It was Donghyuck and the other kids again, then he made awkward but well-meaning small talk with Xiaojun, Yangyang, and Hendery, then back to Johnny and Jaehyun, then Ten zoomed across the room to dance with him ( _on_ him, really), then Taeyong solemnly let him have some red wine if he promised to hydrate immediately after (he broke this promise), then he let Taeil kiss him chastely on the cheek to provoke Sicheng’s dormant jealousy (it remained dormant), then they both ran away in opposite directions from Yuta (who was displeased with both of them, even though Mark had done no wrong)—and then Mark was back where he started, standing by himself near the coatrack in the foyer, surrounded by love and laughter.

So he was absolutely _not_ bothered _at all_ when he didn’t bump into Yukhei all night, even if it was technically Yukhei’s party and Mark was technically Yukhei’s guest. _Not at all._ Not even a little. Besides, Taeyong’s wine tipped Mark over into just this side of tipsy and everything was great, and—oh, fuck, didn’t Mark promise Taeyong something?

“Water!” he shouted his eureka moment to the closest person to him, which happened to be Renjun.

“What the fuck did you just call me?” said Renjun, already squaring up.

“Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight,” Donghyuck chanted as if he were trying to hypnotize them into brawling.

“The kitchen’s over there!” cut in Kun, pointing in a panic.

Mark thanked Kun for both the water and possibly saving his life and beelined to the kitchen. He rummaged through the cabinets but couldn’t find any cups, clean or dirty. Mark had just been about to give up and use a bowl when someone behind him opened up the dishwasher and handed a glass to him.

“This is an Asian household,” Yukhei informed him and Mark had to stop whole body from melting. “Why put away clean dishes when you can use the dishwasher as storage?”

Mark accepted the glass and told himself that he did not brush Yukhei’s hand on purpose and that it was because he was tipsier than expected. “Do you guys even use the dishwasher?” he asked as he filled his cup with tap water.

Yukhei wrinkled his nose. “No,” he said. “Kun won’t let us. Something about the water bill. Thirsty?” he asked when Mark chugged the glass.

“It’s a long story,” he said, then shifted slightly towards Yukhei. “So, uh,” Mark began, feeling a bit nervous. “You know, I’ve been here a while and I haven’t seen you this whole time.”

Yukhei grinned wide but somehow he seemed shy. “Aw, Mark,” he teased. “Why? You been looking for me?”

_Be casual_ , Mark thought. “Yeah, I have, actually,” he said without thinking.

Before he could proceed to drown himself in the kitchen sink, Yukhei’s grin softened and he said, “I wanted to see you, too.” His smile turned sheepish. “But I got nervous, and when I get nervous I get really hungry, so I’ve just been in my room stuffing my face with Hot Cheetos.” Yukhei showed a huge hand to Mark, and his first three fingers were still stained a questionable shade of blood orange.

Spurred on by an awful sham pretense that he was too embarrassed to admit to even himself, Mark took Yukhei’s hand in his own for closer inspection. “You seem like you’re always hungry, though. Like, in class. I mean, it doesn’t matter because I always have snacks, so like—they’re for everyone, not just you—well, not really—well. Uh.”

Yukhei laughed as Mark prayed for absolution. Or spontaneous human combustion—whichever came first. He wasn’t picky. “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Should I be Venmoing you or something?”

Mark paused. “What do you mean?”

“For the snacks. I’ve been…” Yukhei looked as though he was going to change the topic but then steeled himself and pushed through. “I’ve been kind of stalking your social media, and I noticed Renjun and Donghyuck paying you all the time. I looked at the dates and it was always after we have psych together. And then I realized it was probably for, you know. The snacks.” Yukhei looked at Mark in the eyes. “They always pay you back, but you’ve never asked once.”

Mark blinked, then said, “You’ve been stalking my _Venmo_ _transactions?_ ”

“I got curious!” Yukhei defended himself. “It was right after you gave me your number!” Mark suddenly realized they were still effectively holding hands when Yukhei gave his hand a light squeeze. “Well? I can pay you back no problem.”

“No, no!” Mark said hurried, then briefly debated with himself. “You don’t need to pay me back at all. It’s, uh—it’s dumb. I kind of… bring the snacks in just for you.”

Yukhei stared at him, wide-eyed, shining. “Why?” he asked, inching closer.

“Uh,” Mark said again and looked at their hands. “Because I, kind of. Uh.” He called on Taeyong’s wine to finish the job. “I like you.”

To Mark’s great surprise and relief, Yukhei smiled so brightly that it jolted Mark’s heart. He adjusted their hands so that their fingers were now intertwined with each other and said, “Oh, thank _god_. I was scared that Renjun was just fucking with me this whole time.” Before Mark could indignantly demand just exactly what kind of lies Renjun had been spewing to Yukhei, he continued, “I’ve always thought you were so cute. You’re so sweet.”

“And you’re probably spicy,” Mark blurted out stupidly.

Yukhei laughed. His free hand found his way around Mark’s neck, thumb tracing little lines along his jaw, hypnotizing him. There was really only one way this could go, Mark realized giddily, and for once, he got his words out of his head without stuttering in front of Yukhei.

“Could I kiss you?” Mark whispered, hoping to redeem himself.

Yukhei smiled and licked his lips—probably without meaning to at all, and Mark closed the distance between them like a man starved.


End file.
